Prosecutors seek return of ex-minister's land

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Anti-Corruption Court has accepted for consideration a lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor General's Office against the Dilijan community, Artur Arshakyan and former Environment Minister Aram Harutyunyan. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate the auction held on October 12, 2012, concerning a 0.8-hectare land plot located at 29/24 Maksim Gorky Street in Dilijan, the real estate sale agreement concluded between Artur Arshakyan and Aram Harutyunyan on June 20, 2017, and to apply the legal consequences of invalidity, including returning the 0.8-hectare land plot from Harutyunyan's alleged unlawful possession to the Dilijan community.

At the same time, the court imposed an interim measure prohibiting Harutyunyan from taking any actions that could alter the factual or legal status of the land plot specified in the lawsuit.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, an investigation conducted within its mandate to protect state and community interests established that the 0.8-hectare land plot belongs to the category of specially protected natural areas designated as an environmental forest under Article 60 of Armenia's Land Code. Such land could not legally have been transferred into private ownership.